It’s our responsibility to carry forward the story as it’s been set out. You’re spending two-and-a-half hours with this many characters, so then adding in some character that the audience has no relationship to, having to explain the backstory of that character, making you care about that character, making Thanos care about that character, making that character interesting to the other characters…

In the comics, Thanos wants to get rid of all life to impress Death or the concept of it. In the films, his intentions are more… moral.

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige said:

We talked about his motivation, and much of the motivation connected to Lady Death is about balance.

It’s the balance between life and death, the belief that life was getting unchecked and out of hand and there needed to be a correction.

We wanted to make that the driving force of Thanos and his backstory. That’s where Chris and Steve and Joe and Anthony found a more natural, grounded way … well, as grounded as a giant Mad Titan can be.

Marvel Studios

Russo added:

We also wanted to create a really incredible arc for Zoe [Saldana] to play. She’s probably the most heroic, brave character in the movie.

So that, to us, is fulfilling the promise of the storytelling that we have in front of us, versus trying to bring together 23 superheroes in a satisfying way while introducing an ancillary character who doesn’t mean anything to them.

Infinity War has opened with an estimated $630 million worldwide, smashing previous-holder The Fate of the Furious with $542 million.

It also set a new record for an opening weekend at the domestic box office, with a projected $250 million. It’s since overtaken the record set by The Force Awakens, which garnered $248 million.

Getty Images

The movie, which along with Avengers 4, will serve as the grand finale to the MCU, sees Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) Captain America (Chris Evans) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) finally go up against Thanos (Josh Brolin) as he attempts to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet.

To fight off the evil Titan the three will assemble the biggest Avengers team yet featuring Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), Ant-Man (Paul Rudd), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Spider-Man (Tom Holland) and countless other heroes from across the cinematic universe.